ed to
withdraw from formal union, though he still retained the closest
intimacy with her. He was for some time her senior chaplain, and her
adviser and assistant on all occasions. Although he differed from John
Wesley on the disputed points of Arminianism and sinless perfection more
widely than any of his co-religionists, he appears to have retained the
affection of that great man after others had lost it; for we find
Wesley writing to Lady Huntingdon in 1763: 'Only Mr. Romaine has shown a
truly sympathising spirit, and acted the part of a brother.' Indeed,
although Romaine was quite ready to enter into the lists of controversy
with Warburton and others whom he considered to be outside the
Evangelical pale, he seems to have held aloof from the disputes which
distracted those within that pale. 'Things are not here' [in London], he
writes to Lady Huntingdon, 'as at Brighthelmstone; Foundry, Tabernacle,
Lock, Meeting, yea and St. Dunstan's itself [his own church], has each
its party, and brotherly love is almost lost in our disputes. Thank God,
I am out of them.'

Romaine's Calvinism was of a more extreme type than that of most of the
Evangelicals. He was no Antinomian himself, but one can well believe
that his teaching might easily be perverted to Antinomian purposes.
Wilberforce has an entry in his journal for 1795:--'Dined with old
Newton, where met Henry Thornton and Macaulay. Newton very calm and
pleasing. Owned that Romaine had made many Antinomians.'[804] It seems
not improbable that Thomas Scott, when he spoke of 'great names
sanctioning Antinomianism,' had Romaine in view; at any rate, there is
no contemporary 'great name' to whom the remark would apply with equal
force.[805] It should be added that the 'Life, &c., of Faith' possesses
the strength as well as the defects of early Puritanism. It is, perhaps,
on the whole, the strongest book, as its author was the strongest man of
any who appeared among the Evangelicals. To find its equal we must go
back to the previous century.

We have hitherto been tracing the work of the Evangelical clergy in
remote country villages and in London. We have now to turn to one whose
most important work was done in a different sphere from either. _Henry
Venn_ (1724-1797) is chiefly known as the Vicar of Huddersfield, though
he only held that post for twelve out of the seventy-three years of his
life. Like all the rest of the Evangelical clergy whom we have noticed,
Venn was a conne